Super glad to be able to get this video done. I have quite a story behind this one that I know you are gonna luv reading, so to prevent the temptation of watching first, the tutorial is at the bottom of the post.

Why cover caustics in Cycles when it was done in Blender Render already? A fairly obvious question to those who use Cycles, but not to everyone. Cycles is a newer engine in Blender and is built for realism. This makes things like toon-style NPR extremely difficult. Styles like Disney uses with Pixar movies shouldn't be a problem, but preventing something built for realism to be realistic is a challenge!

What makes it so hard? Cycles has all sorts of interactions that happens when objects come into close proximity and other things that want to move away from toon shading - not to mention things like energy loss when you increase the diffuse size even with the toon shader. On top of physical rules that govern it, we also don't have all the textures we have access to in Blender Render. Now we could reason all day that it doesn't matter, but for toon shading, it definitely matters! hahaha.Caustics work extremely well in toon shading, with the Distorted Noise texture from Blender Render. You can think of it as, possibly the best texture for the job. There is only an extremely basic Voronoi texture in Cycles and you can't even sharpen it enough to get that Voronoi Crackle look. I think it was dumped for it's lack of general use. We also lack distortion category of nodes and a few other features that make Blender Render super flexible for toon shading.

Why Cycles then, if it's not suited? This can be summed up in one thing: Render Time. Cycles has support for GPU rendering, making it an extremely attractive alternative to the CPU-only render of Blender Render. Personally, I don't have the best card, so my CPU is faster anyway, helping me stick with Blender Render, haha.

Why this video then? Well, as hard as it may be to believe, I am not the only person on the internet, nor the only person that uses blender, hahaha. There are many people out there who want to do toon shading, who have a much better card than I do and want to use Cycles for it. This video is primarily for that user base. Believe it or not, my most popular video to date is the Toon Shading in Cycles video. There is a need for it. Also, when I shared the last tutorial, a friend from a G+ community asked me if I had any Cycles videos and I only had 4 to share - which isn't much. I then wanted to say that the other tutorials can be interpolated for Cycles at which point the HOLY SPIRIT stopped me from saying it and told me to make a tutorial on water. I had no idea what kind of water or whatever, but later in the day HE told me it would be for caustics and so

this is the new Cycles toon shading tip! :D

If this tutorial helped you, thank JESUS for it, because HE's the ONE that insisted on it and told me what to make!

Know JESUS yet? GOD is reaching out to you through these videos. HE loves you more than you can imagine and wants you to know HIM. Not because HE's lonely, but because HE loves you and paid a heavy price to enable you to go to Heaven, where HE is. See, we all have sinned in some way shape or form. That makes us guilty before GOD. If you have ever said that you hated someone, in GOD's standard, you have committed murder (James 4). If you've ever looked on a person with lustful thinking, you've already committed fornication with them in your heart and you are then guilty of sexual impurity. If you were to face GOD on judgement day, saying: "I was a good person" will be a void argument, just like it would be before a human judge. GOD knew that we would have to pay that penalty and that we could not pay it, even if we tried, but sent JESUS to pay the price for us. Your sins were put on HIM and the forgiveness that is there for you was by no means cheap - the cross was not padded and comfortable, neither was the death.But, HE was raised up on the third day (after being crucified) and finished the work so that we may enter through HIM paying the penalty we were supposed to pay, but it is only valid for you, if you accept it and live for HIM.If that is you today, please, follow this prayer:"JESUS, I believe that YOU are real and I believe YOU died for me and was raised on the third day for me. Please forgive me for my many sins. I make YOU the LORD of my life, full time and to fill me with YOUR HOLY SPIRIT. Teach me how to live for YOU, help me become what YOU have made me to be, in JESUS' Name! Amen!"

To find out more, you can check out this link:http://www.crossallegiance.org/knowJesus.htmlIt gives you access to free Bible translations, free teaching videos and more. Remember, this is a decision with eternal consequence, choose life, choose JESUS. :D

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Revelation 22:18-21

"Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Proverbs 30:6

About Me

Marius Oberholster

Centurion

Hey! I've been doing this full-time since July of 2011. It has been an incredible learning experience, not only learning how Blender works (still learning), but also about Open-Source and the incredible software available.
-----------
This Blog will be a way to stay up to date on all things Panther Dynamics as well as some personal stuff as well.

LivingWaters movies:

The Living Waters ministry kindly allow people to post these, so you too may benefit from them! :DGOD Bless you! Please share these!